Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil's Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea...including him. Captain Jack's only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas

Rebecca Ford wrote:In the latest move by the studio as it continues to make live-action versions of its animated classics, Disney has tapped the Big Eyes helmer to take on the tale of a baby circus elephant who is made fun for his large ears, based on the 1941 iconic film.

As THR exclusively reported, Transformers franchise writer Ehren Kruger penned the script. The film will be a mix of CG and live-action to bring the classic elephant story to life, and will add a unique family story that parallels Dumbo's journey. Justin Springer, who worked on Tron: Legacy as well as Oblivion, is producing with Kruger.

Disney's latest live-action makeover Cinderella, starring Lily James, opens this weekend. The studio has had strong success with its live-action versions, including Burton's reimagined Alice in Wonderland, which grossed a staggering $1.02 billion. And after Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie as the iconic villainess, opened in May 2014, it went on to earn a stunning $758.4 million worldwide.

have any of you seen Dumbo lately? ever? it is a pretty dark movie for a kids flick, a lot of heavy stuff going on, and while I am FAR from a Burton-file this seems like a good fit for him. it isn't as if he has shown any real talent for making "normal" movies, he needs a gimmick to build around, and a flying elephant is a hell of a gimmick

Mike Fleming Jr wrote:EXCLUSIVE: Disney has set a live-action feature adaptation of the animated classic Winnie The Pooh. This is the latest example of the studio re-purposing properties it controls, and it’s also the second time they’ve brought in a cutting-edge independent filmmaker to shape the vision. Disney has hired Alex Ross Perry, the writer-director of the Sundance indie Listen Up Philip. The focus will be Christopher Robin as an adult, which brings him back to A.A. Milne’s famous bear and the Hundred Acre Wood.

Clark Allen wrote:The Explorers Club centers on Sebastian, a shy boy who teams up with the risk-taking Evie in search of her grandfather, who’s been kidnapped for a map leading to the fountain of youth.

In order to save her grandfather, Evie teams with Sebastian to reunite her grandfather’s old explorer team, the Filipendulous Five, who disbanded for reasons unknown.

Mike Fleming Jr wrote:EXCLUSIVE: Disney has set Philippa Boyens to script an adaptation of The Merlin Saga, based on the series of books written by T.A. Barron. Life Of Pi‘s Gil Netter is producing. It’s a coup for the studio to land Boyens, who hasn’t really worked outside her long collaboration with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, with whom she shared the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2002 for the Best Picture winner The Return Of The King. She has teamed with Jackson and Walsh on The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, as well as King Kong and The Lovely Bones.

The studio now has a writer with a strong grasp of how to launch a franchise in a period fantasy world, and a franchise is certainly a hope for the Merlin movie. The young wizard is the center of a much larger story where the stakes are no less than the future of magic in the world.

Warner Bros has already completed production on King Arthur: Knights of the Roundtable, with Guy Ritchie directing, but this sounds like it could be a closer cousin to a series like Harry Potter as a wizard figures out his spell-weaving abilities. Barron has created plenty of room in his origin story, as the book series spans 12 volumes. Disney picked up the books after Warner Bros let them go. Patrick Massett and John Zinman were the first scribes brought on.

Borys Kit wrote:Bryan Cogman, a writer-producer on HBO’s fantasy Game of Thrones, has been tapped to pen the script for the project, which will be produced by Brigham Taylor.

Stone, the final movie released before Walt Disney’s death, told of a young King Arthur who is being mentored by Merlin.

The feature is loosely based on the T.H. White’s novel of the same name, which later became part of White’s multi-book Arthurian fantasy The Once and Future King.

Taylor, a former production exec at Disney, is producing the studio’s live-action version of The Jungle Book, Jon Favreau’s remake of its 1967 animated movie.

Cogman has already demonstrated an affinity for the Medieval fantasy genre. His work on Thrones has seen him nominated for WGA Awards four times and he is currently working on adapting the fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering for Fox. He also adapted YA fantasy The False Prince for Paramount.

Mike Fleming Jr wrote:EXCLUSIVE: Selma director Ava DuVernay has just been set by Disney to direct A Wrinkle In Time, an adaptation of the 1963 Newbery Medal-winning Madeleine L’Engle fantasy classic novel that has a script by Oscar-winning Frozen writer and co-director Jennifer Lee. Deadline revealed February 8 that DuVernay had been offered this film and was also in the mix at DreamWorks for Intelligent Life, a sci-fi thriller scripted by Colin Trevorrow and his Jurassic World collaborator Derek Connolly. DuVernay now has the offer on that film and is in negotiations on a pic that has 12 Years A Slave Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o attached to a fable about a UN worker in a department designed to represent mankind if there was ever contact with aliens, who falls for a mystery woman who turns out to be one. That film is produced by Frank Marshall, Trevorrow and Big Beach principals Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub.

Walt Disney Studios is developing a reboot of the 1991 action-adventure movie, hiring Max Winkler and Matt Spicer to pen the script, which is being titled The Rocketeers.

The project, in the early development stages, is considered a sequel-reboot and, in a modern-day twist, will be headlined by a black female character.

Brigham Taylor, who produced The Jungle Book with Jon Favreau, is producing along with Blake Griffin of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers and Ryan Kalil of the NFL's Carolina Panthers. Griffin and Kalil are partners in a new venture called Mortal Media and approached Taylor with the idea for the reboot.

The Rocketeer was based on the popular 1980s indie comic by Dave Stevens and, like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, was a loving homage to the serials of the 1930s and 1940s.

The story followed Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who discovers a rocket pack and suit to die for and becomes embroiled with mobsters and Nazis, as well as Howard Hughes and the FBI.

When the pic was released, it grossed only $46.6 million and came in fourth in its opening weekend (it was pummeled by Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, City Slickers and Dying Young). Its performance was considered a disappointment by the studio and its creative team.

But a rare thing happened: The film took on a life of its own, engendering a massive following who loved its un-ironic, bright and straightforwardly heroic take on its characters, all abetted by a score by James Horner.

When Disney hosted a 20th anniversary screening of the movie at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre in 2011, fans — many in Rocketeer costumes — lined up for blocks.

It was around that time that the studio began mulling a reboot of the movie, but sources said it sought a way to differentiate it from another rocket-propelled flying hero: Iron Man.

The new take keeps the story in a period setting and offers a fresh view on the characters. Set six years after the original Rocketeer and after Secord has vanished while fighting the Nazis, an unlikely new hero emerges: a young African-American female pilot, who takes up the mantle of Rocketeer in an attempt to stop an ambitious and corrupt rocket scientist from stealing jet-pack technology in what could prove to be a turning point in the Cold War.

Tendo Nagenda and Chaz Salembier are overseeing the project for Disney.

Winkler, the son of Happy Days actor Henry Winkler, wrote and directed the 2010 indie comedy Ceremony starring Michael Angarano and Uma Thurman. He also has helmed episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl.

Spicer is Winkler's producing and writing partner. The two have a coming-of-age drama titled Flower, with Zoey Deutch and Adam Scott, in postproduction, which Winkler directed. They also wrote Magic Camp for Disney and The Adventurer's Handbook for Focus.

Joachin Rønning wrote:It’s difficult to ever know. I think that there’s always… this is the beginning of the finale. [Laughs] It depends on how you look at it. But I never take anything for granted, and I love the franchise. These kinds of movies, they remind me of the kind of movies I grew up with, those kind of adventure movies that made me want to become a filmmaker. So for me to be able to be a part of this and direct a Pirates of the Caribbean is a dream come true. But I don’t know if it’s the last one, or if they’ll make another ten of them — I don’t know! But I hope so!

Diana Lodderhose wrote:EXCLUSIVE: Eva Green is in talks to star in Tim Burton’s Dumbo, the live-action adaptation of the 1941 animated classic for Disney. Sources tell me she’s being eyed for one of the three main adult roles in the title, which is edging closer and closer towards a production start.

A Green-Burton reunion would make a lot of sense given the sizzling actress seems to be the director’s new muse, and Burton has a habit of working again and again with actors he likes. Green played the title character in Burton’s family fantasy Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, based on the novel by Ransom Riggs. It grossed $297.4M worldwide last year. She also starred in Burton’s vampire comedy Dark Shadows alongside Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer, which generated $254.5M worldwide in 2012.

The live-action remake of Dumbo is written by Ehren Kruger, who produces with Justin Springer (Tron: Legacy). Disney’s original version focused on a big-eared, lovable circus elephant, who is mocked for his large ears but learns to use them as wings to fly.

Green has been hugely in-demand lately. After a successful run on Showtime’s psychological thriller series Penny Dreadful, the French actress starred in Miss Peregrine and then worked with Roman Polanski on his latest title Based on a True Story, which is currently in post. She’s also starred alongside Alicia Vikander, Charles Dance and Charlotte Rampling in Lisa Langseth’s Euphoria, about two sisters who meet up again after many years apart and the profound journey that they undertake together.

Green is also attached to star with Gemma Arterton in Vita and Virginia, a title which looks at the love affair between Virginia Woolf (Green) and Vita Sacksville-West (Arterton). But word is that should the Dumbo deal make, dates for that title will have to be shifted.

Dino-Ray Ramos wrote:Paradigm’s David Boxerbaum and veteran lit manager Jake Wagner are out with a hot new spec titled PRINCESSES that studios are salivating over since it’s described as a female-driven Avengers featuring classic fairy tale princesses.